|
52870 9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
Arthur Golding was born in 1878 in Belchamp St. Paul, the eldest of six sons of Solomon and Emily Golding. His father was a farm labourer and the family lived at Mashey Road, Belchamp St. Paul in Essex.
Arthur was employed as a farm labourer and was married to Edith; they lived with their four known children at Knowl Green, Belchamp St. Paul.
He was living in Clare when he enlisted and served with 27th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (formerly 3149), which was a reserve battalion. It is not known when he transferred to the 9th Battalion which formed part of 36th Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division. Between 17 May and 19 October 1917 the Division held positions east of Monchy le Preux mounting raids and small scale attacks. When out of the line they took part in training at Beaurains.
On 30 October 1917 the Division began moving to Heudecourt-Vaucelette Farm in preparation for the Cambrai offensive (20 November – 30 December) when the Allies attacked using a large concentration of tanks for the first time. The initial attack successfully broke through the heavily defended Hindenburg Line gaining 7km of ground. On the 30 November the Germans launched a counter attack and recaptured much of the lost ground. The result of the Cambrai operations was a status quo with both sides suffering similar heavy losses of almost 45,000 killed, missing or wounded each.
Arthur died on 4 December 1917. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, France. A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in March 2014.
He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal and is also remembered on the Belchamp St. Paul Memorial.
Back to Roll of Honour
|
